X-Men: First Class – Amber Heard for Mystique? Pike for MacTaggert?

Published 5 years ago
by
Kofi Outlaw
, Updated February 15th, 2014 at 4:25 pm,

Our friends over at Comic Book Movieare sourcing an issue of Production Weekly for a rumor concerning actress Amber Heard (Pineapple Express, The Joneses) being eyed by Fox for a role as a presumably younger Mystique in Mathew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class.

Heard would certainly be a…visually appropriate stand-in for the blue-skinned shape shifter made famous by Rebecca Romijn in the original X-Men trilogy – however, this news is sure to further confuse fans who are wondering what First Class is going to be about.

Based on the ending of X-Men Origins: Wolverine – where a slightly younger Professor X shows up to save a group of young mutants – the general assumption was that First Class would feature Xavier training young Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast and (possibly) Emma Frost as X-Men. Then came news that actor James McAvoy had been cast as Xavier in First Class, along with early details that the film would focus on a really young Xavier (still with working legs) and his friendship with Erik Lensherr, the man who will eventually become his nemesis, Magneto.

Actor Michael Fassbender (300, Centurion) was recently rumored for the Magneto role – although Comic Book Movie reports that he’s now dropped out of the running (we should be hearing confirmation on that shortly). In another First Class casting update, CBM also claims that actress Rosamund Pike, who was rumored to play Emma Frost, is actually being considered for the role of Moira MacTaggert, a character who appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand and was an early lover/assistant of Charles Xavier.

Will Pike play MacTaggert?

Pike playing MacTaggert would make a bit more sense; the actress is in her thirties and would seemingly be too old to play a young Emma Frost, if that character is indeed part of Xavier’s first class of X-Men. Again, the ambiguity of the story makes it hard to judge who fits where and why at this point.

As for Heard: as I said, she’s plenty pretty to fill Rebecca Romijn’s shoes, but it seems like somewhat of a waste to just recycle a supporting character we’ve already seen so much of (literally). Dye her hair red and Heard could play Jean Grey – or even better, a voluptuous Emma Frost who would be a strong temptation for Cyclops in the Jean-Scott-Emma triangle I think a lot of fans are hoping to see in First Class. Psychic babes are hot.

Take a second look: White Queen, Jean Grey or Mystique?

So far I’m good with Matthew Vaughn directing, and I’m certainly pleased with having McAvoy onboard. I just wish Fox would clear up all this speculation about what the movie will focus on – the actual recruiting of the X-Men, flashbacks to Xavier and Magneto’s shared past – half the movie about the first class, the other half about Xavier/Magneto…

Hopefully details will coincide with the arrival of Comic Con next month.

What do you think of the latest casting RUMORS for X-Men: First Class? Would Heard be a good Mystique – or would you rather see her in another role?

23 Comments

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tasouli 4 years ago

I feel that this movie will have many plot holes in the franchise and that it will fall short on many levels. It does not look like a good idea to me by any means

It sounds like they are taking the Xmen characters….. putting them in a bag, shaking them up and pouring them out.

Cable will be in the movie as a baby and toad will be protayed as a tadpole. Unus the untouchable will have his name changed….. Nimrod is apparently already here and running the show for this debacle of a movie….

It seems pretty clear that this is a reboot, which is not a bad thing. Brian Singer has said several time that the tone will be very much like the new Star Trek franchise. I don’t know why everyone is so concerned with making it fit in the same world as the other x-men movies. It sounds like it’s very close to the original comic material actually. In the comics, Xavier and Magneto aren’t really portrayed as senior citizens. They have always been in peak physical shape and have no problem throwing down. I understand why it was done in the first three movies, but I think James Macavoy is an inspired choice for Charles. I’m praying that Aaron Johnson is indeed cast for Cyclops. He’s a perfect fit (refer to the Children of the Atom series) and the age difference resembles the comics more.

“It sounds like they are taking the Xmen characters….. putting them in a bag, shaking them up and pouring them out. ”

Huh? how do you figure? They’ve announced that Xavier, Magneto, Cyclops, Jean, Moira Mactaggart, and Mystique are in it. They are all right there in the x-men history. Ever since they announced this movie, I knew moira would be in it, she’s xavier’s old gf. Mystique has a long past with the x-men (and it would be sweet to see her set up her being nightcrawler’s mom)
They’ve announced that Frank Dillane might be cast (my guess would be as a rebooted iceman, he’s got the look of a young bobby)

Stay tuned, i wouldnt be surprised if we see the whole original team cast, as well as Banshee (as competition with Moira) maybe Proteus (fits in the Moira story)…who knows

anyways, try to have an open mind, and trust that these guys are gonna do their best.

You do realize it is FOX studios right? Trust and Hollywood should never be used in the same sentence together..It’s almost like trying to bring matter and antimatter together and expecting a good result when we know it is impossible.

In what way is it “pretty clear that this is a reboot”? The FoX-Men established continuity is still going strong, with no indications that there are any plans to reboot. Please, enlighten the rest of us who don’t see what you see so clearly.

I just don’t see how this isn’t a reboot? or at least a partial reboot…James Macavoy is like 31. They’ve said that Aaron Johnson is just about “locked in”, most likely as cyclops. Aaron Johnson is like 19 years old. In the original movies, Prof was in his 70s, and cyke was in his late 30s. Thats a 30 year difference. If they were keeping the continuity, they would have cast Patrick Stewart and picked up where X-men origins Wolverine left off.

I’m not saying so much to trust in fox, but Matthew Vaughn is a great director, and he dropped out of The Last Stand because he wasn’t allowed to follow through with his vision without fox mucking it up. I don’t think he would have signed on to this one if they didn’t give him more freedom. With Vaughn and Singer in charge, i could see this being really good.

I’m officially betting that this is secretely a reboot ala spiderman except this is how xmen should be. For years I’ve been saying let’s just ignore the original trilogy in the sense of the characters and their continiuity. (We don’t ignore it in the sense that ir opened doors for the comic book movie genre). They messed up the whole series with the 3rd one and now its time to correct it.

More like a triangle a lot of fans are dreading seeing. Please make Emma a “grown-up” or leave her out altogether. It’s bad enough she ruined Scott/Jean in the comics, it would be gut-wrenching if she did it in the movies too. Totally on board with Amber playing Jean though!

The process of transforming a comic book to motion picture is not what the word “adaptation” means.

Technically speaking the word “adaptation” means to: rework, revamp, to alter, to modify, to redesign, remodel, and reconstruct. So Fox will go ahead and continue to STUFF UP the X-Men because in their eyes it’s just an adaptation.

This is why I personally loathe the use of the word by film studios and movie fanboys who like to excuse away the rampant misuse of creative license by studios such as Fox and Sony.

Give me an intelligent film maker with true vision, cinematic perception, attention to detail and with a passion and dedication to respect the source material any day over the bowel movements of Fox and Sony.